Cognitive Ecology: The Evolutionary Ecology of Information Processing and Decision Making
Search in google:
How does the environment shape the ways an animal processes information and makes decisions? How do constraints imposed on nervous systems affect an animal's activities? To help answer these questions, Cognitive Ecology integrates evolutionary ecology and cognitive science, demonstrating how studies of perception, memory, and learning can deepen our understanding of animal behavior and ecology.Individual chapters consider such issues as the evolution of learning and its influence on behavior; the effects of cognitive mechanisms on the evolution of signaling behavior; how neurobiological and evolutionary processes have shaped navigational activities; functional and mechanical explanations for altered behaviors in response to changing environments; how foragers make decisions and how these decisions are influenced by the risks of predation; and how cognitive mechanisms affect partner choice.Cognitive Ecology will encourage biologists to consider how animal cognition affects behavior, and will also interest comparative psychologists and cognitive scientists. Booknews Contributors lay a foundation for a field of study that integrates theory and data from evolutionary ecology and cognitive science to investigate how animal interactions with natural habitats shape cognitive systems, and how constraints imposed on nervous systems limit or bias animal behavior. Topics considered include the evolution of learning, how neurobiological and evolutionary processes have shaped navigational behavior, how cognitive mechanisms affect partner choice, and the adaptive design of specific brain capacities. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
Acknowledgments1Introduction12Neural Representation and the Evolution of Signal Form213Constraints on Information Processing and Their Effects on Behavior894Evolutionary Ecology of Learning1295The Cognitive Ecology of Song Communication and Song Learning in the Song Sparrow1756Cognitive Ecology of Navigation2017The Ecology and Neurobiology of Spatial Memory2618Risk-Sensitive Foraging: Decision Making in Variable Elements2979Behavioral Decisions about Foraging and Predator Avoidance34310Evolutionary Ecology of Partner Choice37911Cognitive Ecology: Prospects405Contributors411Index413
